by Lee Gibbons, Podango CEO

(above: The Studio, Leo)

Merlin Mann (43 Folders and a million other cool things) was in the studios in SF yesterday recording a new MacBreak Weekly and put up some nice photos on his Flickr account. Thanks, Merlin.

Other really great things are happening with the Studio as well. Not the least of which is that Scott Bourne has give birth to The Apple Phone Show, now #6 in iTunes Store Tech Podcasts.
We are also generating a steady stream of business that is building each week, clients of every shape, size, and purpose are finding out about the studio and seeking more information about how we can help them succeed in their new media efforts. It is gratifying to us that people get that we get it. When they visit the studio, it becomes very clear that we have begun to separate ourselves in good ways from other podcast services providers. I guess is means even more when you read the last post, then this one, because it isn’t as though everything is always roses, either. Just that we are moving steadily forward on multiple fronts.

If you are interested in scheduling a time to see the studio, please shoot us an email (info AT podango.com) or comment here.

by Lee Gibbons, Podango CEO

Wow, what a day! We have been having some major issues that stem from the efforts we have engaged in lately to become much more scalable. I titled this post what I did because we have all three! And, I am sincere when I say that I am grateful for all three, especially the last. The problems we are seeing and solving are ultimately pains we will not have to repeat. The learning is very valuable. With each day like today, and I pray for the opportunity to live to see many more, our team and our solutions truly do become more robust and worthy of people’s trust.

But with that said, I would like to thank all those who continue to believe in what we are creating at Podango. The DB failure, and subsequent rollback and recovery issues have meant that some podcasters had to enter data and upload content twice. Still others were seeing stats that made them pick up the phone and ask if they REALLY got huge numbers today, or if something went wrong on our side. Others, too, just called to let us know that they were seeing speed issues.

We are now mostly out of the woods… still getting load balanced servers back up. Thanks for all your support. We are growing and learning. We remain committed to building the very most reliable and feature rich podcasting infrastructure to be had. Thanks to you, again, for your help and patience.

Lee Gibbons is featured in this interview shot at NAB (Teh National Association of Broadcasters). Dave Gardy interviews Lee on the show floor, and Lee talks about the Podango vision, new product offerings, and POdango’s unique Network/Station model.

by Lee Gibbons, CEO

Or, in nearly the words of Miracle Max (The Princess Bride), “Only MOSTLY complete!”

We still have a ways to go, but the site really is taking shape. The biggest thing lacking, sadly enough, is our new home page. The current placeholder only shows the most recent n posts in media type categories. The vision is much nicer than the manifestation, at this point. I sincerely hope that the new emphasis on getting content right up front where users can get at it will be well received. It will be a couple more weeks until the site is more user action driven to promote content to the front page of Podango.

But, even so, the new site is more than just a face lift. There are significant improvements that I hope you will pound on and give us feedback on. I will list the most significant here, as I feel they not only represent progress, but also a significant step we have been looking forward to in our strategy.

1. First and foremost, we want you to know that we have not abandoned the Station Model, nor do we plan to. We HAVE changed the name of the stations to networks to better match what we see most podcasters creating when they join forces with other podcasters. Then, in addition, to help new, less savvy end-users, we have begun calling podcasts channels. So Podango is now a collection of podcast networks that deliver a blend of audio, video and blog posts via channels. We have also opened up Network enrollment such that anyone can now create a network. They will still participate at the 50/50 revenue split until they reach ten thousand aggregate downloads per month across their network, then the split moves to 60/40 (Podango takes 40%). Then, once a network reaches over fifty thousand aggregate downloads per month, the network qualifies to be considered by Podango for inclusion in our Podango Premier group of media properties. Networks and podcasts in this elite group receive additional considerations and services from Podango. Details on this are still being worked out, but we think this provides naturally attractive levels of services for those who come to Podango to form podcast networks.
2. You will note that we have introduced a new service that caters not only to networks, but also to solo podcasters. We offer podcasters free hosting if they will split revenues with us. Sometime soon, we will also offer a monthly subscription service for those that do not want to have ads placed on their content.
3. You will notice that we have added video support as well as blogging support. Both of these areas of progress are significant, but let me tell you, you aint seen nothin’ yet on this front. Stay tuned for more video delivery capabilities that will rock your socks. Also, look for our first Podango API driven developments of Blog engine plug-ins. This will let you get the full power of Podango in your native blogging tool. We will start with a plug in for WordPress, and then move to others (Stay tuned for details).
4. Behind the scenes, we have made our RSS feed ingestion and advertising stitching more robust. Our metrics are better than ever, and our infrastructure is fully based on dynamically allocated servers using Amazon’s EC2 virtual servers. Storage is Amazon S3. This hasn’t been without some fits and starts, but it presents significant operational costs and opens some scaling possibilities we could simply only dream of without Amazon web services.

5. As for content, you will notice that we have a ton of new, exciting content. We also have ton of exciting old content. Check it out on our Nostalgia Radio Network.

6. We also have implemented Audio, Video, and text Castbacks, our new commenting system that enables conversations as never before.

Well, best wind this post up. Please give us feedback on what you are liking and concerned about with our new site and initiatives.

(You will note that as of this writing, this blog still needs the face lift! Thanks for your patience and support!)